Gov. Snyder visits Michigan's "Big Wild"

Our ears perked up when we learned recently that Gov. Rick Snyder and his family took a trip this summer to the Pigeon River Country State Forest.

For one thing, we're always hungry for stories from the "Big Wild." We wanted to hear about the governor's adventures and find out if he saw any of the roughly 1,300 elk that live in and around the rugged, 106,000-acre forest.

The main reason we were so interested in the governor's trip, though, is that MEC's Brad Garmon serves on the Pigeon River Country Advisory Council, the 18-member body that provides recommendations to the director of the Department of Natural Resources about management of the largest contiguous tract of public land in the Lower Peninsula. As we wrote in a newsletter story announcing Brad's appointment, the advisory council "was created to uphold the Concept of Management the DNR adopted in 1973 after years of contentious litigation over oil and gas issues. The goal is to forever safeguard the forest's wild character."

When Brad heard about the visit through the advisory council, we contacted Gov. Snyder's office to ask about highlights and to see if the governor thinks there's potential for adopting the advisory council model to involve citizens in guiding the management of other special pieces of public land in Michigan.

Our thanks to Gov. Snyder and his staff for not only answering our questions, but for producing this video and sharing some photos from the trip!

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